Ask HN: Founders can you recount the initial days after launching your startup

[giftsbuffer]

I just launched my startup a few days back, http://giftsbuffer.com. Though it has been only few days, we have been struggling to get any kind of traction for the site or even a decent review of the service.

Startup founders on HN can you write about the inital days of your startup, what were your thoughts during that period, the problems that you were facing and steps you took that solved your problems, etc.

Answer to this question will help me find the right direction for my startup and I am sure it will help out a lot of new startup guys as well.

[AznHisoka]

Some comments: 1) You really need to tell your visitors how you work. Sending gifts privately.. OK, that raises a lot of questions in my mind.. A graphic with step 1, 2, 3, 4 would help tremendously. When i visit now, I just see a bunch of gift ideas in the homepage, and think.. hmm.. I can buy these in Amazon, why shop here?

2) Don't have the mindset that if you don't get any traction in a few days, you're doomed. Doing this is a long, long road, a year.. 2 years minimum. Just keep plugging at it, and don't just try 1 thing. Don't just post in Ask HN and expect it to be enough. Pitch to bloggers, mention it in forums, mention it in real life, talk to journalists who wrote about similar ideas, keep writing articles for SEO, etc. Just keep doing all that, and be patient.

Go to Google Alerts, and set up an alert anytime a blogger talks about something that is relevant to your service. Then submit a comment, or email them telling them about your site, and see if they can review it.

[giftsbuffer]

Yeah I really need to have a graphic explaining what we do and how it works, thanks for pointing it out. You are right I need to have patience and keep my spirits up and keep hoping that are better days ahead.

Thanks for your other suggestions as well, some very good ideas. I will follow up on those ideas and see how it pans out.

[sotu25]

Yes, we had a launch party and predicted a flood of people banging on our door to use our product. For some reason it didn't quite go that way. We launched on 1/11/11 to add a coolness factor to it but to no avail. Here are two great links discussing it by Jason Baptise and the Balsamiq guys...guess you're a little past this phase though:

http://jasonlbaptiste.com/featured-articles/if-you-build-it-... http://blogs.balsamiq.com/peldi/2008/04/18/preparing-for-lau...

[giftsbuffer]

Hey, thanks for your reply. Sorry that your idea did not work out. Will check out the links, thanks.